Friday, December 23, 2011

I meant to post this all yesterday. But I didn't. Oh well. I also haven't taken a picture of my now-brown shawl. It's cloudy and dark and I'm not really sure where to lay it for the best presentation (brown shawl + brown wood floors = not so great). But! I finished my father's christmas gift!

And here are some pictures from Solstice at our house.

The hero pegs I made for the boys. Wolverine, Captain America, Robin, Batman, and Deadpool (some of these were *greatly* influenced by the amazing peg dolls I found on Etsy). Within five minutes of playing with them, they smeared a bit. It makes me worry greatly about the peg dolls that I've sold on Etsy. Of course, it didn't help that the Imp had had his hands in his mouth prior to playing with them. The anxiety, I tell you. I should just stop selling things all together.

The Beast loves the camera. His greatest pleasure is getting behind it and helping take the pictures. Budding photographer, perhaps?

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

My life is full of hats, it seems. Last night I cast on this hat for my husband in the glorious Malabrigo I recently bought (the colorway is Garden Gate, if you're interested). Today I realized that I was using needles two sizes too big. Ugh. I neglected to switch them after finishing the Elf's hat just before.

On an up side, I've finally gotten around to starting to reread a series that I love (I honestly don't know how many times I've read these already). Today is The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. If my usual ways hold true, I'll put off knitting and plow through this book in a day or two. Then I'll pick up the second book and repeat the process!

Here are some things I've finished lately:

This is the Elf's Link hat (as in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time). He begged, I've made. He's thrilled. (Ravelry notes here)

This is my "Jane Eyre" shawl. I used bulky and probably shouldn't have. I also had a seriously limited amount of yarn - so it's shorter than I'd like. And I don't understand the neck band/cuff/doohickey at all. It's warm, though. However! Before you all get excited about the color (every one seems to adore it - my middle son helped me dye in more than a year ago) - I'm overdyeing it. As I type, in fact, it's sitting in a black walnut dye bath. I don't do purple and pink, sorry. (Ravelry notes here)

This is Jiji - from Kiki's Delivery Service. I honestly thought he'd be smaller. For size comparison, those are my three year old's hands. Jiji is for the Beast for Solstice. He's absolutely obsessed with Kiki's Delivery Service (and Ponyo - I'll get to that for his birthday). (Ravelry notes here)

Okay, this isn't finished yet. It's a gift for my father for Christmas (we go to their house for family mayhem). I'll finish him either today or tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Reading Monster Blood Tattoo Book One: The Foundling by D. M. Cornish. I don't remember where I heard about it. It's fairly interesting so far. I got it from the library, so I need to read it before I give in to my desire to reread beloved series over and over again. Knitting: the not-Pebble vest. It's, what? My fifth attempt? I just couldn't get this right. But I think I have now. (Rav details here)

The "waffle" scarf. It took all of both balls of Top of the Lamb. It's longer than I am tall. Whew! But it's done. (Rav details here)

The Imp needed a new hat. The fox-eared hat I knit last year is just too small (I'll be listing it on Julie's handmade hand-me-down doohickey later). I started and finished it in one day - mostly with my eyes closed. I've been feeling dizzy and nauseous (no, I am not pregnant) so watching the stitches move makes me feel terrible. At least I know that if I ever lose my sight, I can still knit. (Rav details here)

And a gratuitous baby picture. Because he's cute and I wanted to. So there.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Oh man. I lost Saturday. It just as well didn't happen. I spent just about the whole day running errands. Everything was crazy-busy, of course. The post office, the grocery store. I won't even mention Target because that was utter hell (and I would have skipped it if we weren't desperate for cat litter).

Friday night (yes, I am skipping around) I discovered that the local yarn store no longer carries the yarn I was using to make that scarf from the Yarn Along. Do you notice the past tense? The scarf was frogged. Using every last scrap I had would have only gotten me about 35 inches of scarf. Oof. So I bought some lovely Top of the Lamb by Brown Sheep (I adore this stuff) in a nice and manly grey-brown. Sunday I spent every free moment knitting the scarf back up. I'm not even halfway through the second ball of yarn but at least it's more likely to be a decent length (not that I know anything about scarves).

So what does all of this mean? I didn't get any work done on my other knitting projects. I haven't worked on my kids' Solstice gifts. Oh. And I have to frog that infernal vest. Again. I stupidly did the side panels in reverse stockinette instead of garter. Grrrrr.

Oh! During the craziness of Saturday's errand-running I went to a "new" yarn store and bought a ball of Cascade Eco plus in a lovely green color that is apparently called turtle. I also dropped off some books at the used book store and scored a lovely stack of new-to-me books for less than $9.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, Villette by Charlotte Bronte, Little Men (and at the bottom, Little Women) by Louisa May Alcott, The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine, The Watsons and Emma Watson by (Jane Austen but "finished" by..) Joan Aiken, and finally, Emma by Jane Austen. No wait, I also bought the first book of the Bartimaeus trilogy for the Elf for Solstice. I've read them already and am kind of hoping it will help rekindle a love of recreational reading. It's not in the stack because it is hiding amongst my yarn stash to prevent prying eyes.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

I'm a day late. Yesterday there were all of five minutes of sun shine. Grey days do not make for good photographs around here. I'm knitting a scarf for a friend (Ravelry notes here). I think I'm going to run out of yarn before it's long enough. I'll check at the yarn shop tomorrow, otherwise I'll have to frog and try something else. I'm also knitting a Pebble Vest for a friend and some gnome hats.

I'm still reading Spartan Gold. I have some books waiting for me at the library, but what I really want to (re)read is the Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig. It's just this thing that I do - rereading series when the mood takes me.

Here's what I've finished recently.

Fingerless gloves for a friend's husband (modeled by the Elf). They're like my stripey ones, only shorter and without the stripes. (Ravelry notes here)

A wee doll for a wee boy. The hair is Crayon from KnitPicks. It's pima cotten and *insanely* soft. If I didn't dislike working with boucle so much, I'd be positively swimming in this stuff.